Ballroom dance

Ballroom dance, type of social dancing, originally practiced in Europe and the United States, that is performed by couples and follows prescribed steps. The tradition was historically distinguished from folk or country dance by its association with the elite social classes and with invitational dance events. In the 21st century, however, ballroom dance is present in many parts of the world and has practitioners in virtually all segments of society. It is performed in various contexts, including invitational and public dance events, professional dance exhibitions, and formal competitions.

Professional ballroom dance competition.

Porfirio Landeros/Kwixite Media

Standard ballroom dances include the waltz and the polka from the 19th century and the fox-trot, the two-step, and the tango, among others, from the 20th century. Other popular dances—such as the Charleston, swing dancing, the mambo, the twist, and disco dancing—have also visited the ballroom repertoire at various points in the tradition’s history. Owing to the social and stylistic breadth of the ballroom tradition, the term ballroom dance has often been loosely applied to all sorts of social and popular dancing.

Early ballroom dance and invitational events

The social origin of ballroom dance lies in the European court dances of the 17th and 18th centuries, although many of the dance steps were adapted from folk traditions. Initially, court dances were performed facing the throne, a practice known as “fronting the state,” because it was unacceptable to turn one’s back on a ruler. As court etiquette relaxed in the 19th century, however, dancers were required to face the ruler only on the most formal occasions or when they were being presented to the court. Otherwise participants danced in circles or squares throughout the ballroom.

During the first half of the 19th century, most ballroom dances, such as the polka and the waltz, were an integral component of social events known as assemblies—planned evenings for a limited group of invitees connected through family, neighbourhood, or affiliation, such as a regiment or a hunting group. Socially respected figures, such as the patriarch of a landowning family, the master of the hunt, or the colonel of the local regiment, were the usual sponsors of these events, and strict rules of etiquette were followed throughout the evening. For dancing, each woman was given a decorative souvenir card on which to list her partner for each dance; following protocol, a man would wait to be introduced to a young woman before asking for permission to enter his name on her dance card. Descriptions of behaviour and expectations at such events are settings for key plot developments in many 19th-century novels, notably those by Jane Austen, Henry James, Louisa May Alcott, Gustave Flaubert, and Leo Tolstoy.

At a typical assembly, dances were performed to live music in a specific order that was set and announced by the orchestra leader. Faster dances, such as gallops and polkas, alternated with slower ones. The music was frequently adapted from operas, ballets, or national folk (or folk-derived) dances, such as the Polish mazurka, polonaise, or cracovienne. Published music for social dance was frequently named for celebrities or special events. Although dance formations ultimately depended on the dimensions of the ballroom, most assemblies included circle (or round) dances as well as various dances generically known as germans, which were performed by lines of couples. Steps to the dances were usually learned from older family members or from friends, or occasionally from teachers, who were frequently also musicians. Dance manuals, which were published by music engravers, were also available. The steps of ballroom dances were much like those of other social dances, but the settings, social class associations, and social protocol of the two traditions differed radically. Indeed, events held in public dance halls and concert salons were commercial—rather than invitational—initiatives, and they did not adhere to the elaborate systems of etiquette that governed ballrooms.

The structure of ballroom dance events changed significantly during the later 19th century, particularly in terms of the structure of dance events and styles performed, as well as the transmission of the tradition. Invitational events were organized for a select few, such as New York City’s so-called Astor 400—the popular label applied to the invitation list for social leader Caroline Schermerhorn Astor’s Patriarch Ball (c. 1872–91). Such events combined a reception, at least one repast, and lengthy dance sets that alternated round dances with an elaborate type of german called the cotillion. The cotillion consisted of a series of short dances or dance segments that mimicked social behaviour, with couples presenting each other with flowers or souvenirs, for example. By the end of the 19th century the cotillion had become so commonplace that its name had come to designate the ballroom dance event itself.

Not only did the style of ballroom dance change in the 19th century, but so too did its mode of transmission. In the 1870s individuals as well as families established studios and joined professional associations to teach steps, patterns, and musicality, thus stabilizing the profession of dance master. The association that later became the Dance Masters of America was founded in 1884. Certain dance masters, such as Allen Dodworth and his family in New York and A.E. Bournique in Chicago, were favoured by the social elite.

Meanwhile, the printing and distribution of dance manuals moved from music engravers to publishers of self-help books, etiquette books, women’s magazines, and clothing pattern books such as those issued by the company of Ebenezer Butterick. Books aimed at potential invitees were often miniaturized to fit in a pocket or a small handbag. A separate line of manuals and a growing number of professional periodicals were sold to dance masters and to cotillion leaders, who managed the order of dances and other activities during the evening.

Early 20th-century developments

Ballroom dances and dance events were transformed monumentally—and indeed, democratized—with the social shifts of the early 20th century. Dances such as one-steps, two-steps, hesitations, and trots (including the fox-trot)—all so named because of their generally faster and more strongly syncopated (with accents placed on normally weak beats) musical style—could be learned by the public at large from teachers, manuals, or general-interest newspaper and magazine columns. In this new atmosphere of accessibility, two subcategories developed: professional exhibition ballroom dancing, in which a couple was paid to demonstrate in front of a paying audience, and competitive ballroom dance, in which amateur couples performed within strict regulations for prizes or titles.

Exhibition ballroom dancers were marketed not only as performers but also as teachers and choreographers. Championed by Vernon and Irene Castle (with their manager Elisabeth Marbury), these professional duos were promoted through photographs, films, and their endorsement of sheet music and recordings. Rival teams established reputations for performing exotic dances, such as the Argentine or Parisian tangos or the Brazilian maxixe. Inspired by the professional teams, amateur couples entered local competitions.

Nonprofessional ballroom dance, meanwhile, extended its reach beyond exclusive ballrooms into public cabarets, roof gardens, and open-air dance halls, further democratizing the tradition. Some members of elite society embraced this expansion of the tradition. Ann Morgan (daughter of financier J.P. Morgan) and Elisabeth Marbury, for instance, sponsored events for young working women that used social dance to promote upward assimilation. However, the further association of these and other venues with the consumption of alcoholic beverages meant that ballroom dance was severely affected by prohibition in the United States in the 1920s and early ’30s. During this era the more solidly established exhibition dance teams focused on vaudeville or film, or they moved to Europe.

Also during this era, the line distinguishing ballroom dance from other sorts of social dance was further (albeit temporarily) blurred, as the primary market for promoting dances moved to the theatre. Ballroom dance events were integrated into the plots of such popular musicals as No, No, Nanette (1925) and Good News (1927) and into films about contemporary life, such as Nice People (1922) and Our Dancing Daughters (1928). Moreover, during this time the enormous influence of African American social dance was acknowledged in the ballroom. Steps from the Charleston—introduced in the African American musical Runnin’ Wild (1923, dance direction by Elida Webb)—moved into the ballroom repertoire, although only a short part of the dance was performed by partners holding hands.

In the 1920s, band arrangements of fox-trots and other ballroom dance music were disseminated through music publishing, recording, and newly networked radio broadcasts. Such exposure ultimately helped establish those dances that have remained standard ballroom fare into the 21st century. Similarly, dance instruction reached an ever-expanding market through franchised studios, such as those of Arthur Murray.

With the end of prohibition in 1933, ballroom and exhibition ballroom dances further solidified their links with American social life, popular entertainment, and the music industry. The same range of dances was now seen both in public settings and at invitational events, such as country club dances, as well as in popular film sequences set at college dances and country clubs. Popular African American social dances of the first half of the 20th century, such as the lindy (or lindy hop), the stomp, and swing dancing, were drawn into the ballroom repertoire, albeit in a somewhat less exuberant form. A few of the best-known public venues for these dances, such as the Savoy and Audubon ballrooms in New York City’s Harlem district, survived well into the mid-20th century, often hosting sponsored competitions, such as the preliminary rounds of the Harvest Moon Ball at Madison Square Garden. Meanwhile, the popularity of Caribbean and South American songs and ensembles and the development of Afro-Cuban jazz (early Latin jazz) supported a Latin dance craze, bringing renewed popularity in the 1930s to exhibition teams performing rumba, acrobatic adagio, and slow-dance styles. These professional dance teams also helped promote the Cuban mambo and cha-cha.

Exhibition and competitive ballroom dance since the mid-20th century

In the second half of the 20th century, social dance genres followed the entertainment industries’ pursuit of a youthful audience. Accordingly, popular rock-and-roll dances (such as the twist), disco dances (such as the hustle), and break dancing were all in turn publicized, dramatized, and commoditized within the ballroom dance context. Older forms of ballroom dance, particularly those derived from 19th-century models, persisted through their association with new sorts of social rituals, most notably those connected with fund-raising. These events, generally called cotillions or debutante balls, served both to raise money for worthy causes and to introduce young people into society. Early ballroom dance styles also continued to be practiced in traditional family settings, such as wedding receptions and Mexican quinceañera celebrations, which mark a girl’s entry into adulthood.

Exhibition ballroom dance remained popular in Britain and continental Europe throughout the 20th century, particularly in semi-invitational settings, such as resorts and hotels. Especially after the 1960s, ballroom dance gained a strong following in Asia. Popular interest and scholarly research, moreover, brought new appreciation to both ballroom and social dance as valuable reflections and embodiments of a community’s social values. Meanwhile, the regulations governing competitive ballroom dance became more exact as dance teachers switched their focus from inventing new dances to codifying existing ones. Those “official” versions of fox-trots, waltzes, and tangos—all with specified steps, postures, and head positions—have been maintained in European televised competitions and to some degree in Olympicfigure skating (specifically in ice dancing).

Competitive and recreational ballroom dancing are student activities at Massachusetts Institute of …

In the early 21st century, an alternative form of competitive ballroom dance thrived in Europe, North America, and South America in television shows such as Dancing with the Stars. These elimination series focused largely on the personalities of the contestants, with individualization earning more points than strict adherence to the rules. Once an expression of elite society, ballroom dance has continued to expand its appeal and adapt its approach in response to the ever-changing aesthetics of contemporary culture.